what are you wearing??

What are you wearing? Where did you buy your clothes? Who made it? Do your clothes represent you accurately? Fashion touches everyone everywhere. So to meet these demands clothes are mass produced in a standard set of sizes As global trade and communication grew,  designers wanted to reach a wider audience Its seems like such a no-brainer for people to shop like this but there was a time when this wasn’t anything but. Courtier’s of the past would arrange appointments to their most exclusive clients and make clothes to their liking and fit. . With the current mass-marketing modern approach fashion has become less of a personal experience and more “expendable”.
      There was a time when fashion was handmade whether it was made at home or by a world class tailor. Ther would be private shows for only the most intimate clients, where everything was created with the highest standard. From the pre world war age came Haute Couture. Haute Couture was for the distinguished woman of class. This was where all to the influential styles of movies an royalty were created.

      “the maintenance of such a masquerade required significant organizational and creative skills from a range of employees, the test of which resided in the apparent perfect finish of the product and the effectiveness of the publicity surrounding it

      fine hand sewing, beaurocratic control, and creative vision, then, underpinned the success of a couture house”

      Fast forwarding to now, the aesthetic of making clothes are practically opposite of Haute Couture. In a world of machine manufactured goods and an ever growing population, handmade clothes are a commodity. The rise of the internet and television has caused cultural trends to spread thinly over a huge audience of people. This puts everything on high demand; including clothes.
      Luxury designers design clothes that are now considered Pret-a-Porter. Clothes are now made in standard sizes and available to everyone. This in turn makes them more “disposable”. Department stores and magazines are now encouraged to sell you a “look”, rather that help you state your own.

      “…  in recent years Seventh Avenue marketers have added another element; instant style changes… the prevailing philosophy is ‘here today gone tomorrow.”

      Fortunately the age of Couture is painted in a romantic haze by surviving old time fashion designers such as Valentino and Oscar de la Renta. So there are some creative standards that still translate into the masses; if you have the money of course. Others find their individual solace in websites like Etsy and Cut Copy where allot of independent designers and crafts people make hand made items. Even though fashion is “expendable” there are still ways of creating your own, truly, individual style.